The Player Speaks: Via the DMN via RedRaiderSports, Jackson said that Eric Morris and Mike Smith were big influences in his decision:

“I have a great relationship with Coach (Eric) Morris and Coach (Mike) Smith, they showed me around and I felt comfortable with them,” Jackson told Rivals.com. “I know it’s only a verbal commitment for now, but I’m very confident in my decision.

“I love Tech. They have a really good family atmosphere there that I really like, and they take care of their players.”

Scouting Report: Jackson makes a ton of plays, but he could do a heck of a better job of using his hands and keeping that offensive line off of him. It’s like he allows that offensive lineman to body him and yet, Jackson is still able to make plays. That won’t last through high school. He’s got to get his hands up and engaged with the offensive lineman. Jackson also has a tendency to get a bit upright, but that’s another minor flaw and an easy one to fix.

Let’s get to the good. The good thing here is that Texas Tech has landed the commitment from a defensive tackle (check) that’s in high school (check) and is from West Texas (check). All of those things are hugely important to me and when I wrote about defensive tackles, I wanted Texas Tech to own the players in West Texas (maybe a bad choice of words), but you get the idea. I want Texas Tech to dominate or be in on these kids as early as possible. West Texas kids should want to go to Texas Tech. Easier said than done, but this particular commit makes me happy.

The fact that Texas Tech will have a defensive tackle that they can mold and walk along with and mature is huge for this program, a program that is in desperate need of high school defensive tackles. Jackson has terrific size, already at 6-4 and although I think he can get stronger, he’s right on pace. Again, we didn’t get to see a ton of how Jackson works with his hands, but he’ll need to do that on the college level.

I also think that Jackson is a pretty good athlete and this keeps with my theme on this Texas Tech recruiting class. In rolling through the photos of Jackson’s twitter, I noticed that he’s dunking a basketball. I haven’t been able to find anything where he plays for the Sandies, but the fact that 6-4/275 player can dunk a basketball tells you a bit about the type of athlete he is and the fact that Texas Tech is making all sorts of efforts to find projectable athletes.